ST MATTHEW

 We do not know where the Gospel of Matthew was written, although it was probably composed around 80-85 AD. Because it is written in Greek, the author must have been in a city large enough to have a Greek-speaking population and a substantial Jewish community, some members of which were followers of Jesus. Antioch in northern Syria, is the location most often put forward, though without much supporting evidence. Matthew’s city might have been in Galilee or in an area close to Galilee (Transjordan, the Mediterranean coast or southern Syria). Any city within or close to Israel is a likely location for Matthew and for his opponents, the early rabbis, who were based in Galilee.

This location fits the narrative about Jesus too. Matthew places Jesus’ home in Capernaum (Matthew 4:13) and most of his work in Galilee (Matthew 4–18). Good-sized cities, such as Sepphoris and Tiberias on the west coast of the Sea of Galilee, or even Capernaum and Bethsaida, had both Jewish and gentile Greek-speakers, as well as the social resources to educate and support leaders and writers like the author of Matthew. And if not Galilee, one of the surrounding cities with a Jewish community, such as Caesarea on the coast or Tyre in Lebanon would fit the social setting as described in Matthew’s gospel. Galilee and its neighbours, with their complex and cosmopolitan society and tightly-woven cultural and commercial networks, could easily have supported the growing Christian-Jewish movements.